UN
Tells ICP To Not Use Its Empty
Table In Lobby, Don't Report on
Corruption, Disappear

By Matthew
Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS,
April 18 – Fourteen months
ago, acting against Press
coverage of Ban Ki-moon's
links to UN corruption cases,
the UN Department of Public
Information had Inner City
Press physically
ousted from the UN.Audio
here.

Since then
an UNrelenting campaign of
harassment by UN Security and
the requirement that Inner
City Press unlike other media
have minders to stake-out
public events in the UN has continued.
Now a new low: after a few
days of Inner City Press using
a table left by the UN in the
UN lobby to work, including
editing videos of Antonio Guterres'
spokesman's non-answered about
censorship in Cameroon, on
April 18 the UN Department of
Public Information which
evicted Inner City Press for
reporting on corruption told
it "multiple people" want it
to stop using the table. On
what basis? If UN staff and
others use it? Apparently the
goal is to, post-eviction,
make Inner City Press
disappear, or to stop it from
being contacted by sources
about UN corruption. Requests
have been made to the top
floor of the UN. Watch this
site. Also, unlike other
media, now Inner City Press
has a "witching hour" of 7 pm,
after which its pass does not
work. This meant, for example,
that the "Peace Is" event in
the General Assembly lobby,
ironically overseen by the
Department of Public
Information and its Officer in
Charge Maher Nasser, Inner
City Press could only cover
until 6:56 pm, in the middle
of a performance of flutes and
dancers. Periscope video here.
The Officer in Charge has
still not substantively
responded to the straight
forward requests
submitted to him in writing 11
days ago. We'll have more on
this.

On April
10, Inner City Press was
required to get a UN
Department of Public
Information minder to cover a
meeting on "Ad Hoc Working
Group on the Revitalization of
the Work of the General
Assembly Third thematic debate
on the selection and
appointment of the
Secretary-General and other
executive heads." Ambassadors
then approached Inner City
Press to say, among other
things, they favored a single
term for the Secretary General
and other top officials, to
preserve independence from
pressure from the most
powerful countries to get a
second term. Then a UN
Security supervisor, who last
week banned a Latin American
ambassador from speaking to
Inner City Press, had his
underlying guard come to
demand to see Inner City
Press' minder - this while he
allowed another correspondent,
reportedly vying for a UN job,
to run down the hall after a
diplomat. Meanwhile a DPI
official stiffly walked by,
follow by the UN Security
official responsible for
this. This is today's
UN: corrupt.
More to follow.

On April
7, the annual Rwanda genocide
commemoration by the UN which
failed so badly in 1994 took
place in the Trusteeship
Council Chamber. To cover it
as it has in previous
years, Inner City Press
was required to get a DPI
minder to escort it; the
minder stayed while diplomats
approached Inner City Press to
speak, including about the
UN's current failures on Burundi
and Cameroon
as well as Yemen and Syria.
Then the DPI minder said, You
have to go, and escorted Inner
City Press back outside the
turnstile. When the event
ended Secretary General
Antonio Guterres, who had sat
on the podium with the DPI
Officer in Charge Maher Nasser
who has had before him for a
week Inner City Press' formal
request
for restoration, gave through
the turnstiles to head to the
elevator. He passed, seemingly
oblivious, by the very
location of censorship,
chatting with a staffer whose
promotion Inner City Press has
covered (which Guterres'
holdover spokesman Stephane
Dujarric called "despicable").
This is today's UN.

Back on
April 3, the continuing
restrictions by DPI meant that
after entering through the UN
metal detectors and having its
backpack / office searched in
detail, Inner City Press has
to request a DPI "minder" to
stakeout the day's meeting on
UN Security Council reform. As
other correspondents walked by
without minders, Inner City
Press was behind a red rope.
When a Latin American
country's Permanent
Representative approached
Inner City Press to ask
questions - ironically, one
was about DPI's censorship - a
UN Security official came over
to "break it up." This is
censorship, and has been
raised.

On March
31, the day after a ghoulish farewell
event for DPI's Cristina
Gallach, Inner City Press was
still restricted, and could
not for example stake-out a UN
Security Council session about
"hybrid war" without being
overseen by a UN minder. This
is censorship.

Back on
March 23, because it is still
unlike other UN correspondents
required to enter through the
metal detectors with tourists,
Inner City Press was unable to
cover the UN Security Council
meeting beginning with UK
Foreign Secretary Boris
Johnson, whom it wished to ask
about the cut off of internet
to Anglophones in Cameroon for
more than 60 days. Call it
double censorship, with the
UN's role as shameful.
Gallach's Department of Public
Information claims that the
press it has evicted is
facilitated through the metal
detectors, around tourists
whom DPI propogandizes. This
DPI claim is false, as are so
many. Mend it or end it.

On March 6,
Inner City Press had to
curtail coverage of an event
in the UN General Assembly
lobby about Sexual Violence in
Conflict, including the rapes
in Minova in Eastern Congo
about which alone asked UN
Peaekeeping's Herve Ladsous
until he stopped answering,
because of Gallach's ongoing
curfew: 7 pm. After that hour,
unlike other correspondents in
the UN, Inner City Press' pass
no longer opens even the first
turnstile (it still does not
open the second floor
turnstile at any hour).
So Inner City Press had to
suspend broadcasting amid the
speech
by new Deputy Secretary
General Amina
J. Mohammed.

Quickly before having to leave
altogether, Inner City Press
went to the Ghana National Day
it was invited to and
Periscoped the Permanent
Representative's speech,
here, including on
Security Council reform which
Inner City Press asked
Deputy SG Mohammed about and
a dance
afterward, here. And
then it had to go, under
Gallach's censorship order.
Ghoulishly, Inner City Press
is informed that Gallach may
even be re-applying to keep
the post that has been
advertised. That would be a
travesty: Gallach's unilateral
decisions must be reversed.
Watch this site.

On March
1, 2017, Inner City Press was
unable to cover an event on
the UN Conference Building's
second floor to which it had
been invited. It informed the
sponsor that due to Gallach's
evicting order and reduction
in Inner City Press'
accreditation, it can still
not get through the turnstile
to the second floor. So the
sponsor moved to put Inner
City Press on the list of
public guests to enter through
the General Assembly lobby but
was told not, that is not
possible for the Press. So,
entirely Banned - while the
Egyptian state media to which
Gallach is trying to give
Inner City Press' long time
shared office, Akhbar al Yom,
rarely comes in, and asks no
questions at all.

Meanwhile, despite the top job
of DPI that Gallach has so
badly mishandled being opened
for applications, on March 1
some said Gallach is trying to
stay on in the job. That would
be a travesty, not only in
light of her no due process
eviction of and continuing
restrictions on the Press, but
also her failure to do any due
diligence on Ng Lap Seng,
under house arrest for UN
bribery. Gallach is
responsible for DPI's "Wonder
Woman as UN Ambassador"
fiasco, and paid public funds
for a trainer to tell
DPI-accredited NGOs that
Detroit, Michigan is a "third
rate city" in "flyover
country." Staying on at the UN
even now reflects what's wrong
and budget cut-worthy in
today's UN. Anything past
March 31, in any capacity,
would just make it worse.
Watch this site.

The
continuing hindrance of Inner
City Press' coverage ranges
from formal General Assembly
meetings to February 20 events
on "revitalizing the General
Assembly" to the SDGs and even
the death
of Ambassador Vitaly
Churkin.

Inner City
Press arrived early at the UN
to cover revitalization or
reform, but could only get to
the area in front of the
meeting when accompanied by an
escort, and a watchful minder
throughout. Several diplomats
commented on it; some saying
they'd like to talk with the
Press, but not like this. This
is censorship, targeted
censorship. Other
correspondents who do not
cover the UN as closely or
critically wandered by without
any minders required.

After news
broke of the death of
Ambassador Churkin, Inner City
Press returned for a 3 pm
meeting at which, because of
the death, a handful of other
correspondents also staked
out. But while the UN
correctly allow them to roam,
Inner City Press was limited
to a penned in area, even as
the SDGs were discussed. Given
what DPI under Gallach claims,
this is hypocrisy, too. And it
must end.

Egyptian
state media Akhbar al Yom's
rarely present correspondent
Sanaa Youssef to whom Gallach
is trying to give Inner City
Press' shared UN office was
once again not present, and
has yet to ask a single
questions. This is a scam.

On February
17 for the tenth anniversary
of the adoption of the
International Convention for
the Protection of All Persons
from Enforced Disappearance.

Wanting to
ask about disappearance from
Kenya to Western Sahara, Inner
City Press arrived early to
get the still-required minder
to accompany it to the area in
front of the Trusteeship
Council Chamber, where other
journalists and it before the
retaliatory eviction one year
ago could go without any
minder. But there was a
delay, and be the time Inner
City Press was escorted, the
sponsors and attendees had
already gone in. A pen that
several interlocutors called
absurd was established.

Inside, a
Moroccan "inter-ministerial
delegate" talked about armed
conflict in "the southern part
of our country" - that would
be Western Sahara. France
along with Argentina announced
a pledge. But the delay and
restrictions made it
impossible to pursue these or
other questions. This is a
pattern.

Back on
January 24, there was an event
ironically about "propaganda."
Here
was the definition given, in this
tweeted photo.

While the
event went on, Inner City
Press under Gallach's 11-month
old eviction order was
required to leave before 7 -
its UN pass stops working in
UN turnstiles at that time.

On January
17, for an event involving
Gallach herself as a speaker,
despite having been invited --
not by the UN -- and having
its RSVP confirmed, Inner City
Press was stopped by UN
Security and not allowed to
enter. Video
here.

In any event, with the
UN pass that Gallach has
reduced, Inner City Press
cannot get through any
turnstiles to work after 7 pm.
Gallach herself appears in the
UN Office of Internal
Oversight Services audit
of the Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe
(RIP) UN bribery case, at
Paragraphs 37-40 and 20b, as
having done no due diligence
of Ng Lap Seng's buying of UN
events and even its Slavery
Memorial. Audit
here.

She
and Ban Ki-moon, to punish and
make more difficult coverage
of their links to these cases,
evicted Inner City Press and
restrict it to this day, 11
months later. As to Ban, Inner
City Press on January 17
appeared in a 19-minute interview
about corruption and
censorship on Seoul's TBS
radio. On the lower
profile, entirely
unaccountable Gallach, we'll
have more.

This is a litmus
test of press (UN) freedom.

Gallach's
censorship order of February
2016 prevented Inner City Press
in December 2016, for the first
time in years, from covering the
UN budget process, including on
human rights and Burundi,
another of Ban Ki-moon's
failures.

For years Inner City Press has
been virtually alone in covering
the late night Fifth (Budget)
Committee session in which
billions of dollars are carved
up. But in 2016 for the first
time, following Gallach's
retaliatory eviction order and
ghoulish restriction regime of
minders and the putting off of
pass, Inner City Press could not
cover the budget.

By seizing Inner
City Press' long time office --
and awarding it to an Egypt
state media Akhbar al Yom whose
correspondents Sanaa Youssef
rare comes to the UN and never
asks questions -- Gallach and
Ban have made so that Inner City
Press cannot enter the UN after
7 pm. But that, of course, is
when the budget process happens.

In December 2016,
for example, Burundi cut the
funds for human rights observers
and the UN mission the Security
Council mandated but has yet to
deploy. Inner City Press covers
these, but was Banned from
covering the process by Gallach.
This is a cover up.

Meanwhile
Gallach is showing her true
colors with article such as that
“amateurs” killed journalism.
Really? Energetic online media
that actually covers UN
corruption is a threat to
deadbeat stenography or
non-existent journalism like
that of Akhbar al Yom's
correspondent?

Gallach is the wrong person to
have control of the UN
Department of Public
Information. She also did no due
diligence on Macau based
businessman Ng Lap Seng in the
John Ashe case, and is
responsible for the UN's Wonder
Woman fiasco. She must go.

***

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